STATEN ISLAND, NY - GRANITEVILLE -- North and West Shore residents may yet see a fourth Staten Island precinct by 2012 as the city hustles to push forward the plan against the tide of a shrinking budget.

Hard times and tight money have delayed the construction of a Graniteville stationhouse, but the city may be requesting contract bids for the new 121st police precinct by the end of the month.

Members of Community Board 1's land-use committee voted unanimously this week to press on with the design. The stapler-shaped stationhouse would be constructed in a largely residential neighborhood across from the Richmond Avenue ShopRite.

"We are going forward with this project as aggressively as possible," Inspector Anthony Tria, the commanding officer of the NYPD's capital construction unit, told the community board. "The police commissioner and the mayor are behind it."

If lights are green at every turn, groundbreaking for the 121 could begin by late spring or early summer; the construction is expected to take 30 months to complete.

An innovative, steel-clad design by Rafael Vinoly Architects has won accolades for its green features. The building will seek a "silver" certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

At Monday night's meeting at CB1's Rosebank headquarters, a few members of the community board kibitzed over the design, with Leticia Remauro prognosticating obstacles to silver certification and Ken Tirado likening the building to a giant stapler. But the group added an amendment only to request additional public parking spaces be considered, since the five spots drawn into the plan seemed, to some, insufficient and likely to be occupied by police vehicles.

The new precinct would have jurisdiction over the top-left quarter of the borough, including Mariners Harbor, Port Richmond, Westerleigh, Willowbrook, Travis, Bulls Head, Bloomfield, Sea View and Chelsea. It would replace the 122 Precinct's satellite station in New Springville.

The 121 would accommodate up to 389 officers, based on the uniform locker space drawn into the plan.

The project was originally slated for completion by October 2010, but budget cuts have pushed that date back.

Plans for the new 120th Precinct in Stapleton have been repeatedly delayed, going back as far as the mayoralty of David Dinkins. City officials announced they would break ground in 2008 after the same promise was broken in 1998; this fall, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that the work on Stapleton's Hill Street precinct house would not begin until at least 2014.

Tevah Platt covers the North and East shores for the Advance. She may be reached at platt@siadvance.com.